Friday, January 6, 2012

Nick Meets the Galactic Telepaths

Nick Herbert parts the veils between worlds
In the early 60s I had experimented with the then-legal consciousness-expanding drugs LSD and peyote (available by mail from a ranch in Texas) and was ready to explore the effects of a substance considered so satanic by the American government that it is classed with heroin and its use forbidden even to sober scientists.

For me legal LSD and peyote acted as gateway drugs to the illegal use of marijuana.

At that time the street price of marijuana was $100 a "key" (kilogram = 2.2 pounds) which was broken down into "lids" (each about an ounce) which sold for between 5 and 10 dollars--the so-called nickel and dime bags. Unlike today's powerful sinsemilla buds, yesterday's marijuana was mostly leaf which had to be separated from seeds and stems. And to obtain pot, one had to have connections with a (technically) criminal underground. For the sake of science I made such connections and learned how to "clean a key" and "roll a joint". My mind seems to have an affinity for this forbidden substance and I have since had many unusual experiences with cannabis in various forms.

One evening I was alone in my house in Los Trancos Woods when Paul and his wife Miriam dropped by. Paul was a Stanford med student (now a therapist in So Cal) who was interested in psychedelics and psychodrama. I rolled a joint and we "got high". Someone suggested that we read aloud and I proposed "The Song of Songs". "I hate the Song of Songs," said Miriam. "Let's try this," she said, picking up an old college humor magazine from a pile of books. Miriam began to read and pot's ability to make the lowest silliness seem profoundly funny began to kick in. We laughed at Miriam's every word.

We laughed and laughed. And then something strange happened. It seemed to all three of us that there was only one person laughing. We had merged minds, so it seemed, into one laughing entity. "It's the sound," Paul conjectured. "It's the sound that's uniting us." So shocking was this new experience that we quickly came down. Drawing pictures on a napkin, Paul gave a mock-scientific explanation of the cannabis molecule's action on the brain which we all found funny but we were now laughing separately not as one being. They invited me to a party but I claimed to be too stoned (on one shared 60s joint?) to be good company. Paul and Miriam left and I stoked up the fire in my living room and prepared to enjoy an evening by myself.

Then inside my head the voices began to speak.

They claimed to be an ancient group of galactic telepaths traveling through space mind-to-mind rather than in clunky metal ships. "Here is what we do," they said and suddenly I experienced a kind of LSD trip. Then they turned off the "mind ray" and I become completely normal. They took me in and out of this odd psychological space several times to show off (I suppose) their prowess in the mental realm.

Then the aliens revealed the purpose of their visit. They were inviting me to join the conspiracy of galactic telepaths. They told me that some of my friends were already members. Unlike "Tony the angel" whose voice projected a clear persona, these alien voices seemed colorless, like ticket agents or office clerks. My initial response was that if this community really existed its goals would differ from human goals as much as human goals differ from the goals of fishes. This group must by necessity be non-human. So by joining it I would in some sense be betraying the human race.

The aliens seemed to understand my misgivings, but assured me that although I qualified for membership, there was no pressure to join. Then they withdrew from my mind and left me alone.

For the next few days I was obsessed with this contact and tried to discover other members of the group. Some of my psychedelic pals in the Stanford psychology department were prime candidates but they all shrewdly denied being galactic telepaths.

If this offer was real then I missed my chance to meet a million alien beings, to learn startlingly new truths about the mental and physical universe and to hear dozens of alien ethnic jokes.

On the other hand, if this experience was a message from my larger self, it may have been a prescient hint concerning the nature of quantum tantra--a more intimate way of doing physics that may look less like the physics of today and more like the sort of science practiced by galactic telepaths.

5 comments:

Nano said...

I profess a similar affinity and set of experiences that have left me dumb founded, as well as self initiated experiences that have worked incredibly well and some that were total botched events.

I have met a puca and some folk from sirus, with MJ's help because that's what I intended to do, I have also seen the birth and participated in the development of my panspychic self with her help. There have been times when I have snaped to a state of "nowness" and alertness similar to what I have experienced with LSD.

After reading your post several thoughts have come to mind.

If sensory deprivation "shuts" the input of the body to the brain and CNS, as could happen in space, lilly tanks, or when one gets REALLY high on a variety of substances or Yoga, Tantra, Magick etc; couldn't it make some sense that to truly travel through this vast vacuum that a physical medium would be at best, tedious? and what more fitting way than to ingest "plants" to help get a feel for the "map" of mental hyper space, both inner and outer?

"Is" consciousness traveling through the "Quantum current" while still attached somewhere to a physical system(s) that blooms consciousness, and has figured out and/or ingested something to access this wave? or "is" consciousness able to exist without material form and "arise"? It does seem possible, as per your experience and many others, including my self, that a "higher" form can be created/birthed when people are in sync.

Ultimately, to me, what can we bring back, to help us in our and ours daily life? I think quite a bit.

helixxo said...

I've been seeking an experience like this since I heard Grant Morrison's (graphic novelist and magician) story about meeting alien beings;

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6148569602584070911

nick herbert said...

I can testify to the utter persuasiveness that such experiences come from "outside". But one cannot ignore the possibility that the same crew of intelligent beings who script, cast and produce your sleeping dreams might also be capable of creating a waking dream whose plot they custom market to your peculiar needs and gullibilities to which they have unique access. For me, galactic telepaths; for a woman I met at the local university, hot sex with a reptile alien.

"In science, it's important not to fool yourself. And you're the easiest one to fool."--Richard Feynman

Ultimately, as Nano proposes, such experiences must be judged by their fruits.

Anonymous said...

Nice Post!
Very personal and I like that. And at the end.. are we really individuals with our own soul? Sound to good to be true..

Apollion888 said...

Love the pic, is your right eye in the center of the triangle by chance or design?

What in hell is consciousness anyway? Personally, I don't think consciousness is independent of matter, I think it's inherent in it.

Matter is energy condensed by an unconscious force, and when the condensation is biological, that force is able to flower as consciousness.

Best guess this week :-)